U Calgary vs Western IVEY?
So I’ve been studying my potential path to banking and I’ve considered either attending Calgary or IVEY. I know it sounds ridiculous but here are the reasons for both.
University of Calgary:
I’m west coast so it’s more local. I’ve already researched the clubs and groups I’d have to join. There are actually plenty of people I’ve identified who are part of the finance club there I could network with, and even people who are part of the Calgary Portfolio Management Trust whom I have a lot in common with and I’m sure it’d be much easier to reach out to.
Ivey:
It’s Ivey. Best business school in Canada, students consistently find roles in New York and Toronto. (I want to end up in either of theyeo )
Main con is that I saw the finance clubs are very exclusive and they are sort of gatekept as many of the members went to the same private schools and so they are familiar with one another. Seeing as I’m west coast, I’d be toast in having a chance to join those clubs.
So what do you think? I’m confident I will get into both as my grades and extra curriculars are good. Thank you everyone!
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's a breakdown of your options:
University of Calgary (UCalgary):
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Western Ivey:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Recommendation:
If your ultimate goal is to land a role in Toronto or New York, Ivey is the better choice. Its alumni network, on-campus recruiting, and reputation in high finance are unparalleled in Canada. While the exclusivity of clubs might seem daunting, the overall opportunities at Ivey far outweigh this challenge. Focus on building relationships with alumni and leveraging the school's resources to overcome any initial barriers.
On the other hand, if you're more interested in energy finance or prefer staying local, UCalgary is a solid option, especially with programs like CPMT. However, breaking into top-tier IB roles outside Alberta will be significantly harder from UCalgary compared to Ivey.
Sources: Here are the Target Undergraduate Schools in Canada, Here are the Target Undergraduate Schools in Canada
Ivey no brainer if you can get into the WIC crowd, you’ll place very well. Will get MS for this but be prepared to meat ride club members
accurate
Idk where you're getting that information about western clubs from but it's not true. If you just do simple due diligence and look at their website, the analyst class every year only has 1-2 people out of 12 from a private school
delete
sort of a coughing baby vs. hydrogen bomb situation tbh
Delete
Who lol
name drop and i'll et you $50
bros salty he couldnt land WIC hahaha
Delete
I work at one of the top EB in NYC. My firm hires several analysts from Ivey every year
Ivey and it's not even close. Just work hard anywhere you go.
If you go to Calgary you are restarted
Ivey will always a better choice than U Calgary for IB. There is no comparison between the two. Ivey wins hands down. It just attracts a higher caliber of student and the education is exceptional. Ivey grads place well in TO, NYC and Europe. You can likely do Energy IB in Calgary banks coming out of Haskayne, but you won’t be attractive to many banks in other locations. Do yourself a favour and go to Ivey if you can.
Would it be a bad decision to pick Smith over Ivey or are they generally the same?
Smith is solid. It’s not a bad choice. The case method at Ivey is fantastic for prepping you to do cases/modeling tests for finance/IB/MBB roles.
thanks man, appreciate it!
Less of a commentary on UCalgary and rather some thoughts on Ivey. My impression is that Ivey's only objective is manufacturing as many future financiers as possible. I find they do this through a combination of career services, peer mentoring, finance-oriented course loads, and GPA inflation. In my experience, this hasn't resulted in better candidates coming from Ivey, but instead very polished candidates in an interview setting who often lack substance on the desk. They can be good, but it feels like you're rolling the dice every time.
A couple things to note:
Taken together, Ivey is probably the best place to launch a career in high finance. Although, my personal view is that they don't necessarily provide the best candidates as an employer. I suspect nothing will change though, and so they'll continue to place well.
Knowing the people that frequent this forum, I anticipate I'll get some negative feedback on this post. I'd prefer to hear what others think rather than being hit with random monkey shit.
they also dont give A- grades, its just A+, A (both are 4.0) or B, so easier to get close to 4.0 if the curve is 82% (80+ is A), whereas other schools like UofT/UBC/McGill curve to B/B+. Also know Ivey alumni share the question bank with Ivey students and try their best to retain the Ivey pipeline. I think Ivey does a good job of creating very polished candidates that end up joining great firms and alumni stay connected creating more connections for future students.
Contrary to your opinion, I usually hear people say positive things about the calibre of talent coming from Ivey, first time hearing an experienced banker say the opposite. imo Ivey also places the most in US EB/BB and MF/UMM PE from canadian schools, so i dont think the candidates are that bad
Yes good to point this out. Last crop of Ivey students we hired were complete dubs and left us dumbfounded as to how they all had 3.9s + aced the interview.
saw a uc guy place at kkr so if you work hard you can go anywhere
Yea i know right hes such a restarted guy i was on a chat with him and couldnt stop gassing himself off like bro zip up your own pants when your done
Yeah he's a clown
For the avoidance of doubt, I didn't say all candidate are bad and I recognise my experience is limited to my exposure (so maybe 5-10 individuals). The interview preparation / grade inflation makes it hard to differentiate and I feel it's more likely to end up with some average person who then doesn't develop as quickly.
I’m a second year rn at UCalgary, and I picked it over Ivey AEO, so I feel like I can empathize with your decision to a pretty high degree.
Obviously, Ivey is going to be better on average for employment, especially in IB. Calgary just isn’t near the same level as Ivey for those opportunities. However, if you feel like you can get on CPMT, you will be completely fine. I have a friend on CPMT and I’m gonna apply there next year. My friend just got his acceptance to CPMT like a week ago and they’re already lining up SA 2027 interviews for the CPMT class. So you will get the opportunities you want if you get CPMT, just be prepared for a lot of your opportunities to be O&G related.
Another thing to consider is the news today that Evercore is pausing recruitment of Canadian candidates due to visa issues. A major selling point of Ivey, and what has made it the most-renowned business undergrad in Canada, is the Ivey to NYC pipeline for IB. Evercore seemed to be the crown jewel of this pipeline. When I was choosing between Calgary and Ivey, the possibility of working for Evercore straight out of school was my number 1 factor in favour of Ivey, alongside the other obvious factors like better employment stats and placement overall. I even connected with a guy on here who was doing the Ivey to Evercore NYC thing and had a phone call with him before I made my choice. So that option being gone is at least a minor hit to Ivey, but again, Ivey would still be the obvious choice in a vacuum
Ultimately, I chose Calgary for personal reasons. It’s wayyyyy closer to home, since I’m from SW Sask, and it is definitely nice to be able to drive home for the weekend if I wanna see my family and hometown friends. If I went to Ivey I’d most likely only see my family during winter break. There’s also the fact that I didn’t wanna make the decision at 18 to optimize for a career that I wasn’t 100% sure I wanted. I don’t care about money to the extent that many others do, and I value my happiness and time a lot. In the end, I’m happy with where I’m at.
If you make the same choice I did, I definitely can understand it. However, and this is the most important part of my comment, you must understand that choosing Calgary over Ivey will most definitely reduce the expected future value of your career earnings. You must be cognizant of that in order to make your choice and not regret it. I do think that when it’s all said and done, money just doesn’t matter as much as most people think it does before they’re lying on their deathbeds wishing for a bit of time and/or happiness back. Make the choice you wanna make for your own personal reasons. If your most important factor is getting into IB, don’t be an idiot and pick UCalgary thinking it’s “just as good.” But if the other factors outweigh that, you’re not a moron for picking the inferior school on paper. And if you do pick UCalgary, I’d love to get in touch. Best of luck!
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